This invention relates to a device for controlling a system for producing a controlled beam of particles, such as a system known as an electron beam exposure system.
It is known in the art that an electron beam exposure system enables minute patterns to be drawn by the use of an electron beam on a medium, as compared with an optical exposure system. With miniaturization of an integrated circuit, the electron beam exposure system tends to be adopted in lieu of the optical exposure system to fabricate various masks required on production of the integrated circuit. In general, the electron beam exposure system comprises a beam producing system for producing a controlled electron beam to draw a pattern on the medium, a control interface device for controlling the controlled electron beam, and a data file coupled to the control interface device for memorizing a plurality of data set specifying various patterns to be drawn by the electron beam.
In a conventional electron beam exposure system, a data set for a single pattern is supplied from the data file to the control interface device each time when the single pattern is drawn by an electron beam. After the single pattern is drawn, the data file memory supplies the next following data set for another single pattern to the control interface device. On the other hand, a great number of patterns are usually required to fabricate the integrated circuit, especially, a very large scale integrated circuit. The data file memory must, therefore, be accessed many times. As a result, it takes a long time with the conventional system to draw all of the patterns.